Lucky Family takes home $86 million after taxes

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The winner of the second-largest jackpot in Maryland history remains a mystery, but thankfully his surreal story does not.

A dozen members of the “Lucky Family,” as they called themselves, joined an Anne Arundel County man as he claimed his prize at Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore Friday, and the family deserved to be on hand, having delivered the winning numbers to Mr. Lucky in a dream.

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The night before Lucky bought 10 Mega Millions tickets at a Severn convenience store, he dreamed of relatives saying the winning numbers.

“It’s like they were talking to me about the numbers in the dream,” he said.

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He played several combinations of those numbers and his birth month, date and year.

It was a relative who called Lucky the morning after the Oct. 1 drawing to tell him where the $189 million winner was sold and what the numbers were.

“I cried and I cried,” he said. “Since the economy went down, our life has been tough.”

For a week he hid the winner in light bulb socket of an unplugged lamp.

In Baltimore Friday, his family hid their faces behind signs that said “We Are So… Blessed Excited Fortunate Happy!!”

The Lucky Family took the cash option, which leaves them with $86 million after taxes.